Bleacher Report Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has been “accused of using a machine to sign his autograph for memorabilia company selling to collectors instead of signing himself,” according to Darren Rovell of ESPN.com. “They had a very machine-like feel,” Steve Grad, the principal authenticator of Beckett Grading Services, said of five autographed Prescott cards from the Panini 2016 Prizm set. “You could see the starts and stops.””I immediately knew they were autopen,” he added. “I’ve never heard of a modern athlete doing this.”Prescott, 23, had a superb rookie season, throwing for 3,667 yards, 23 touchdowns and just four interceptions while also rushing for 282 yards and another six scores. He led the Cowboys to an NFC-best 13-3 record and a first-round bye, though the Cowboys lost to the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round.

These shenanigans have to stop right now. Most shenanigans are cheeky and fun but these shenanigans are cruel and tragic. We can’t have this. Not that I think athletes faking signatures is a great thing but I like to live by the mantra what momma don’t know, won’t hurt her. If I get a get a piece of memorabilia with a signature on it I’m just going to trust the guy I got it from that he got it from the athlete or their handler. Not going to think about anymore. Once I have it’s mine. Although, I firmly believe that if you buy memorabilia with autographs on them and you didn’t get it straight from the athlete themselves or at the very least get it from a friend that ran into them and they went up to the athlete and said “hey, my friend would love if you could sign this napkin” then you’re some kind of strange hombre. Might not be a popular opinion, but it’s where I stand on the topic of secondhand autographs.

My big fear is that athletes faking signatures is going to start to be the new trend in player crime. The Eli Manning saga of him and fake helmets is still unfolding and now we have Dak Prescott allegedly not signing jerseys by using some kind of advanced sewing machine. It used to be that athletes would just get in a bunch of bar fights or wouldn’t leave a tip and the waiter/waitress would put it on-line. Now we have these athletes taking the easy route when in comes to writing their name, which I must say is impressive from a lazines point of view.

Let’s just hope the players can get back to threatening to hold out and doing wild things at clubs. If I enter next week and I hear that Brent Celek always fakes his signature I’m going to blow my stack.